User blog:Kolmogrov142 Oracle Tuto X/Using nanotechnology to create semi-immortal metahumans.
Warning complicated chemistry terms ahead* Nanotechnology traces its contempary history back to the late great Professor Richard Feyman in his then mostly ignored 1959 lecture at Caltech titled; "There's Plenty of Room at The Bottom". In this lecture Feynman put forth the idea that a process albeit one in the not to distant future could be developed as a means to control individual atoms and molecules; furthermore he believed that this technology would revolutionise modern chemistry and by extension allow for radical progress in such fields as materials science and civil engineering. Although Feynman's ideas became increasingly popular with Science Fiction writers it wasn't until 1986 when K Erik Drexler released his "Engines of Creation" did the scientific community take Feynman's ideas more seriously. In "Engines of Creation" Drexler extended Feynman's ideas with the idea that the nanobots as he called them could self replicate themselves for greater efficency; which if you're familiar with the more Science Fiction orientated work is very similar to a Von Neumann Probe which is more or less a type of self replication star ship, for interstellar journeys. Although nanotechnology has a wide variety of incredidbly diverse and useful applications and implications the one I'll be looking at is cellular and molecular regeneration; which if my theories are correct could lead to the greatest scientific breakthrough since the discovery of gravitaional waves, semi-immortal metahumans. In order to understand how regeneration could be accelerated we first need to understand how regeneration in biological systems such as humans works; but before we do that we need to do a quick overview of the human genome. The genome is more or less the genetic material of a biological organism and is made up of one of two things DNA or RNA. DNA (or Deoxyribonucleic acid if you want to get more technical) is a ladder or thread like chain of neucleotides (organic molecules which serve as the monomer (molecules which bond to form polymers (a molecule consisting of many subunits or parts))) parts for forming the nucleic acid polymers DNA and RNA. DNA contains the genetic instructions relating to the growth, development, reproduction and function of all living organisms. DNA alongside its cousin RNA is a nucleic acid which contrary to popular belief won't make you high as a kite; rather nucleic acids are biopolymers (polymers produced by living organisms) which are essential to all forms of life (at least those that follow Darwinian natural selection). Due to nucleic acids being comprised of monomers they each have 3 distinct components; a phosphate group, a 5-carbon sugar (or pentose if you want to get more technical) and a nitrogenous group. A pentose is a monosaccharide (the most fundamental component of a carbohydrate) with 5 carbon atoms. Pentose come in two types or groups aldopentoses and ketopentoses. Aldopentose' have an aldehyde (an organic compound containing a functional group (specific groups which are responsible for what types of chemical reactions specific types of molecules undergo with the chemical structure -CHO; meaning that a chemical with a -CHO structure consists of a carbonyl centre with the carbon atom also bonded to an R group as well as hydrogen) at position 1 Ketopentoses on the other hand have a ketone (organic compounds with the chemical structure RC(=O)R', where R and R' can be any number of subsitients containing the chemical element carbon) functional group at position 2 or 3. Within the cell Pentose' have a much greater metabolic stability than Ketopentoses which is why they are generally favoured over Ketopentoses; due to the enomous benefits metabolic stability has when it comes to living organisms. A Phosphate group is a group consisting of Phosphates. Phosphates are inorganic compounds (i.e. compounds which don't contain carbon or cannot be found in preexisting living organisms) and salt (an ionic compound which is formed from the neutral reaction of an acid and a base) forming anions (negatively charged ions). Ions are particles which have a non-zero net/over all charge exambles of ion's include protons and electrons+ every other particle with a positive or negative charge value. A nitrogenous base is an organic molecule with a nitrogen atom which has the somewhat interesting chemical property of being a base (substances which in aqueaous (solutions in which the solvent (a substance which dissolves a solute(a chemically distinct liquid,gas or solid) ) is water) solutions become slippery). Most but not all DNA molecules consist of two biopolymer (look above for definition) strands which coil around each other form a helix or ladder like structure. The two DNA strands which make up the double helix are called polynucleotides due to them being made of more than one nucleotide; each of the nucleotides which make up DNA are composed of 1 out 4 nitrogen-containing nucleobases (nitrogen containing biological compounds which form nucleosides (analogous to nucleotides without a phosphate group)). These 4 nucleobases are C cytosine, G guanine, A adenine and T thymine+ a phosphate group and a sugar called deoxyribose. The nucleotides of the DNA molecule are connected together in a chain via covalent bonds (i.e. chemical bonds which involve sharing electron pairs between atoms) between the sugar of one nucleotide and the phosphate of the next nucleotide in the next section of the chain; thus resulting in an alternating sugar-phosphate backbone chain (in relation to polymers this is the longest series of covalently bonded atoms which create the continious chain of a molecule). The base pairing rules of nucleobases are A with T, C with G; this means that the nitrogenous bases of the two DNA strands (polynucleotide strands to be precise) are bound/joined together. DNA consists of biological information which means that it contains all the information required to make an exact copy of itself and the living organism it is part of; furthermore both polynucleotide strands contain the exact same information pertaining to the particular organism the information in the DNA refers to.When the two strands separate the information contained in the DNA is replicated; this is part of the reason why the offspring of two people take different traits from their parents. Roughly 98% is pretty much useless since it doesn't code proteins hence the term noncoding DNA the other 2% contains the genetic instructions on how to create an exact copy of itself. The sequence of 4 nucleobases alongside the backbone of the the DNA molecule which encodes the necessary biological information. RNA (which is the other important component of the genome) strands are created using DNA strands in a process known as transcription (the process in which a particular segment of DNA is copied into RNA via the enzyme(macromolecular biological catalysysts(biological processes which accelerate chemical reaction)) RNA polymerase. Under the genetic code (the set of rules/instructions used by living cells to translate information encoded within genetic material into proteins) the RNA strands mentioned previously are translated to specify a particular set of amino acids within the proteins of the DNA molecule, via the aptly named process of translation. Within living cells DNA is organised into long strand like coiled up structures known as chromosomes; these chromosomes are duplication in the process of DNA replication whenever the cell divides, this provides each cell with its own complete set of chromosomes. Moving onto cellular regeneration which is a key part of my theory on how to theoretically engineer semi-immortal metahumans. Regeneration is the process by which cells, organisms, organisms and ecosystems are made resilient to events which cause disturbance or damage; regeneration can be complete (i.e. where the new tissue is the same as the old/original tissue) or incomplete whereby the tissue becomes scarred or damaged. In terms of regeneration all living creatures have the capacity for regeneration but some creatures can regenerate better than others. One example of a type of creature which has a form of heightened regeneration above that of regular humans are anthropods i.e. creatures with an exoskeleton; anthropods are capable of regenerating appendages which as you can imagine would come in very handing for making semi-immortal metahumans. For instance if one our hypothetical metahuman lost a hand they could use the nanobots in their cells to regenerate the hand; the reason why the hand can be regenerated is because of the fact that the biological information which makes up the hand is contained within the DNA molecule and since information can't be destroyed all that would be required to regenerate a hand would be the genetic instructions on how to regrow said hand. Another type of species known as an Annelid can regenerate both the upper and lower parts of their bodies if they get bisected which is also a very useful ability to have and one which would come in handy for lots of things. Other species can regenerate missing organs or parts of missing organs and some species such as the hydra can regenerate the entirety of their bodies; which in the hydras case means that any group of cells larger than a few hundred if isolated from the body of the hydra will rapidly start to regenerate into a smalller version of the Hydra. If we could somehow unlock the incredible regenerative abilities of the Hydra and boost them to the point of being able to regenerate from a single cell there would be practically no limit to how long we could live. Brain degenerative diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons could be cured once and for all and instead of having to struggle through life paraplegics could walk again; without the need for expensive artificial limbs which let's be honest don't look that great in real life. Well there you go the process and implications of biological/cellular regeneration through nanotechnology. Category:Blog posts